Jail after drunken assault with pool cue

Last updated 15:51 28/11/2013

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An Irish national who hit a man with a pool cue in a Queenstown bar and squeezed a police officer's genitals has been sent to jail.

Anthony Joseph Twomey, 25, concrete worker, appeared in the Invercargill District Court before Judge Kevin Phillips this morning for sentence after admitting two charges of assault using a pool cue, assaulting a police constable and assault on October 13.

He was sentenced to nine months' jail and will then return to Ireland.

The police summary of facts says Twomey, an Irish national who was living and working in Christchurch, was playing pool at the Buffalo Club Bar in Queenstown with two associates when a scuffle started and one of his friends held another patron up against a wall.

Twomey swung the pool cue at the victim, hitting him across the arm, and the end of the pool cue hit a glass propelling it into the face of another man, the summary says.

The man suffered a cut below his left eye which required five stitches, it says.

Twomey was held by door staff and taken outside to wait for police but in an attempt to break free he grabbed a doorman by the neck and squeezed tightly, the summary says.

Police arrived and arrested Twomey but while taking him in the car to the station he became aggressive, grabbed a sergeant's genitals and squeezed hard. The sergeant did not receive any permanent injuries, it says.

Twomey refused to comment to police.

Judge Phillips this morning accepted Twomey was remorseful for his offending.